Marketplace ?

Schwarz;2034 said:

I rip my CDs at 192kbs...I read somewhere in the past (can't remember the source) that 128kbps is about FM quality, 160 kbs is near CD quality, and that 192kbs was better than CD quality sound.

I use tracks burned at 192kbs on my DJ rig...I don't notice any difference in sound or freq. range as compared to purchased CDs.

Um, sorry, but none of the above are true. All of the popular compressed audion formats are lossy formats. This means that you lose quality. They use algorithms that take out samples using psycoacoustic methods so that most people will not notice what is taken out very much. This means that whenever you encode to MP3, AAC, WMA, or some other formats, you lose quality. The higher the bit rate, the higher the quality and the less lost, but all are lossy.

FM is analog, so you really can't compare, but it's very, very high quality. The only factors in this quality are the signal strength and the equipment used to listen to it. CD quality is 44.1 KHz 16 bit digital audio. Any lossy encoding of this is less than CD quality, so 192kbps cannot be higher.

I personally cannot stand the sound of compressed music. I worked as an audio engineer and am a bit of an audiophile. I do used AAC on my iPod because WAV would eat up too much space, and it's a tradeoff between having my tunes with me or having the highest quality with me.

Schwarz;2390 said:

This has already been answered...posts disappeared I guess. The reference I had referred to was in regards to perceptible difference. Most people can't tell the difference between files ripped to 192kbs and the original lossy format. Again, good audio equipment will always make the difference.

Sorry, I just realized that this had been answered and I had skipped the post. Sorry if I stepped on any toes.

I think that Apple offers downloads in Apple lossless for a little more money, but I don't think that the Zune will play in any lossless format, will it? In any case, I don't know if many people would buy on the Marketplace in lossless format, as it's just as expensive to buy the CD in that case (well, if you buy all of the tracks from the CD). I wish there were more options for bitrates on the online stores, though.

I am a musician (over 20 years now), and have been in bands that have released CD's, although not in the last 5 or 6 years. It used to be so hard for a struggling band to get a) the funds together for CD duplication and any kind of attractive packaging b) distribution if you are not that well known, and c) selling all of the copies that you printed at a price that actually made you any money. It never happened for me. We always ended up in the hole.

In this day and age, if I were to release another album, I would do it online. I could sell a limited number of pressed discs for people that preferred them, but then also sell downloadable FLAC versions of the tunes. There are several issues here. For one, I know that there are piracy issues here. What is to stop one person from buying my entire album and copying 100 discs and giving them to friends or sharing them on a filesharing network? Nothing. But....Woohooo! I just got someone to listen to my music, giving me exposure. Nobody knows who I am anyway, so it would only be a plus to get my music out there. Second, being an unknown artist, traditional methods of getting CD's pressed is going to put me in debt. Downloadable music might actually make me a few dollars, since the overhead is low.

I applaud Pearl Jam and some other bands for what they do. They are taking advantage of the age they are living in and using it to spread their art to others. Too many musicians are complaining too much about piracy that they are forgetting what it is all about. And they might actually make some good money if they embraced the new way of doing things.

I have a few friends who are tapers. I think that it's really cool that some great bands allow the taping as long as people don't sell their stuff. Maybe more bands should sell live tracks of all of their concerts on their websites. I think that those would sell very well, considering that most of the mainstream albums are so traded on file sharing networks, everybody has their stuff. They should look into alternative streams of revenue instead of complaining about falling sales.

I do know. I checked out some of their live stuff that is available, and it looks like a great idea. I have not listened to them in a very long time, but I would be willing to buy live tracks in FLAC for groups that I like.

Does the Zune marketplace have free downloads of the week or the month like iTunes does? I always get the free downloads, keep the ones I like, dump the rest. I have been introduced to some great music this way.

The points system is pretty simple to use. I love it because I have a XBox 360 and can share the points between my Zune and my 360. You can buy points online at the marketplace or at most stores that sell 360s.

Schwarz;2045 said:

I thought I had read somewhere that ITunes downloads were 128kps...maybe that was Wal-Mart.com downloads...oh well, doesn't matter...I dont' download songs from either.

You're right, iTunes downloads are 128kps.

I see this is the place to be......0 posts in this forum. Well I guess I'll be the first.


When downloading music from the Marketplace is there anyway to adjust the compression on the songs/album. I'm not a big downloader most of my music is ripped from CD but I bought some points to try it out and the albums I bought were downloaded at 192kbs. Not the greatest sound in the world.

Anyway any help would be greatly appreciated.